Among my Borneo textiles, I have three where I"m not sure as to what technique has been used.I know that with sungkit the pattern should be almost the same on both sides and with pilih the pattern on the back is the like a negative of the front side. But I'm enclosing photos of three Kain Kebat where, as far as I can see, neither one nor the other applies.Can anyone explain what is the technique applied in each of these three pieces?Thanks,Christophe

thank you very much for your comment.This is what I was tempted to think: that the first and third are sungkits but I was confused because on the reverse there is a mess (and a mesh) of threads distorting the view of the pattern, while I have other sungkit cloths where the pattern on both sides is razor blade sharp. Could it be that in these two cases the weavers were not very skilled?And then, similar applies to No 2: if it is indeed a pilih, than the pattern on the reverse is pretty much obscured. And the background which is red on the front, becomes black on the reverse.I can send you high resolution photos by email, because here I am limited to 500K.

Hello, I would guess that the sungkit pieces are not so old and the weavers didn't bother to trim the threads on the back as they would not be seen when the skirt was worn. I think in pilih you have a white base weave and red and black supplementary weft threads which float on the surface when needed or on the back when not part of the face motif. Your description sounds like what pilih should look like to me. More than high resolution what is needed is close-up photos showing the threads clearly. I think you have it right.

I am completely swamped and drowning this end and I very cheekily asked for help from someone who has researched in Borneo, particularly amongst the Iban, and has written about them. I never cease to be amazed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge. He is reticent about appearing on the forum but happy to help us. He agrees with MAC about top and bottom skirts being sungkit and the middle one being pilih.

He gave me some helpful comments about the relevant weaving techniques:

Quote:

"Sungkit is a weft wrapping supplementary technique in which the supplementary wefts are wrapped around the warp and then knotted very finely. The weft locks wraps and knots into place. The knots after a sequence cannot be repeated any further are cut finely with a sharp knife. In the Batang Ai in Sarawak and in Kalimantan Barat some weavers stopped cutting the ends of supplementary wefts starting probably in the 1960s for skirts because they could not be seen. It only rarely was done with pua' sungkit. The Bhutanese did much the same with their cloths. My efficiency principle coming into action.

Pilih is another supplementary embroidery [in the sense of adding threads, not using a needle to sew] method using a continuous weft in which additional weft shuttles float in front of and behind the warp to indicate the design. Often with the Iban the supplementary wefts are paired red and black strips which is what your correspondent is thinking about when he talks about a mirror image."

He also drew my attention to a forum thread started by John Kreifeldt back in 2004 with some comments from Georges Breguet when John was thinking about writing an article on pilih. There are some good photos including close-ups. See: viewtopic.php?t=2265

I have just gone through some photos I took of a sungkit cloth (not a skirt) in the British Museum's collection. I know I took both front and reverse. All the photos now look so similar I can't tell the difference! I post one close-up image here where I folded over a side of the cloth to try and show both front and reverse at once. You can see how similar they are and certainly no uncut ends. I think that the small part of the cloth showing underneath to the right of the photo must be the front and the larger layer of textile must be the reverse. The cloth was woven before 1851 as that was when it was originally donated to Kew (and later passed onto the British Museum).

the contribution of your friend is invaluable! And the discussion between John and Georges from 2004 is extremely informative as well.Thanks a lot for both!So, now the matter has been cleared: the two pieces are indeed sungkit and one is a pilih.Just one more question to MAC: any idea where they may be coming from?

Very difficult to tell from your photos especially as the front of the skirt cloth is partly covered by the reverse.

Once again I have asked advice from my reticent Borneo researcher. Although difficult to be certain he has suggested that you go to a map of Borneo and Sarawak and find Engkilili in Sarawak, and look across the border in Kalimantan Barat among the Iban on the other side of that range. The skirts might possibly be from that area which stretches up to Badau. [Finding a decent enough map of Borneo may be a problem. My best one is currently 'hiding' in my bookshelves but on another I can get as far as Engkilili and 'look' across the border into Kalimantan but there the names are missing.]

Thank you very much for your help but you are right: I have forgotten that I didn't even post photos of the entire skirts and I expect that someone will be albę to recognize them.I'm sorry for this and I will post full photos but it will be end of the months when I get back home. Till then, I will be in NTT.But, of course, I will try to work with maps - I think I have four, each showing different names of places, so perhaps one will list Engkilili.Thanks a lot again and I will be back end of May with all this.

I need hardly add anything to the always excellent information from Mac, Pam and the anonymous informant but in case it was not mentioned and/or I did not notice it, pilih need not be a "negative" on the "reverse" side. It depends on the design. I have a number of pilih in which the reverse is just an unrecognizable jumble.

I have also seen several sungkits with hanging threads on what would be an inside (skirt, jacket). It is a lot of extra work to hide the loose end.

thank you very much for your contribution!Your comment sums it all up and fully answers my questions. My conviction had been that the reverse of a pilih had to be a clear negative version of the front side. And the same for sungkit: I thought that the reverse had to be almost exactly the same as the from panel. And indeed I have in my collection examples of both such cloths. But now I understand that sometimes they are not so perfectly executed and a mess on the reverse is indeed acceptable.

I would jut like to add that Pamela's anonymous informant is absolutely correct on his description of sungkit and pilih. Also, sungkit is a discontinuous supplementary weft technique meaning not a single supplementary weft winds its way all through the cloth.

From the photos, the middle photo is most definitely pilih and the third photo where the reverse of the skirt is clearly visible, the supplementary weft is quite clearly discontinuous. With the first photo, it is harder to tell as it is not clear enough but what is evident is that we cannot quite see a continuous supplementary weft winding its way through the skirt which indicates that it is most likely to be discontinuous, which makes it probably a sungkit with the bits on the reverse not neatly trimmed off.

Continuous supplementary weft would be known as sulam in Iban, which is really embroidery using single supplementary weft threads winding their way through the skirt. No bits are trimmed off. This is clearly not evident in the skirt in the third photo. In the first photo, when I downloaded it and zoomed in as close as possible, I am inclined to say it too is a sungkit as the embroidery features of a sulam are not visible but warp wrapping is. The bits were just not trimmed off neatly.

Vernon, You refer to pilih as embroidery but I wonder if we can call it that. I believe that the continuous supplementary threads are added during the weaving process and are thus a weaving technique. I think of embroidery as decoration applied to an already woven base cloth by means of a needle and thread. Some sort of needle might be used to insert the supplementary threads during the weaving process but they are beaten in along with the foundation weft and are thus woven into the fabric of the textile and not added after the foundation textile has been woven into cloth. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

I think you misread me. If you re-read my comment, I refer to sulam as continuous supplementary weft which is essentially embroidery. It often occurs at the ends of the belantan (long shawls) and sometimes on skirts.

Pilih is quite different. It is a floating supplementary weft over and under the warps. Pilih is also a continuous supplementary weft but the weft threads float above and under the warps to create the design.

OK, I see. You were really referring to embroidery where a plain fabric is first woven and then embroidered with a needle and thread. I think embroidered skirts must be rather rare as we see so few of them. Thanks for clearing up the picture!!

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